Spaces Within Space is a solo exhibition by Hana Yilma Godine. This show is part of Gallery 263’s Exhibition Proposal Series—a program in which shows are selected by a competitive jurying process. In Spaces Within Space, the artist draws upon time spent living in numerous places—including a childhood in Ethiopia, an experience studying abroad in Spain, and, most recently, a move to the United States—to layer space and search for commonalities between forms in both her large-scale figure paintings and intimate landscape paintings.

Exploring and discovering visual languages from different materials—including oil and acrylic paint, charcoal, gesso, fabric from Ethiopia, and collaged magazines from Ethiopia—permits Hana to layer transparent surfaces on canvas and fabric. With these mediums, she draws, then loses the drawing through coloring; eventually, she finds the original marks, which she likens to rediscovering herself. This layering of space mirrors the artists’ views of the realities and transitory nature of a globalized world and the experiences of different places and time that is central to it. By working in this manner, Hana unfolds an accumulation of history, creating a composite of women from different places and different times to create unique spaces.

About the Artist

Hana Yilma Godine was born in the southern Ethiopian village of Arssi Negele and grew up in Addis Ababa. After graduating from high school, she attended the Abyssinia School of Fine Art and Design, where she studied drawing, sculpture, and painting, which prepared her to enter Addis Ababa University Ale School of Fine Arts and Design. There she studied painting and drawing. Hana studied painting and serigraphy in Spain as an exchange student. She also taught drawing at the Lideta Architecture College in Addis Ababa. She moved to the United States to continue her education, studying theory and literature, which has helped her learn about American life and culture. Her work has been exhibited at the Alliance Ethio-Francise Art Gallery, Muse Gallery, the Columbus Convention Center Project, and Clark Gallery. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting at the Boston University College of Fine Arts.